Steve Bannon: All Citizens of All Backgrounds Are Part of the Nationalist-Populist Movement

Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images10 Sep 2017

Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon strongly stated in a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose that American citizens of “every nationality, every race, every religion, every sexual preference” are “part of this populist economic nationalist movement.”

Rose asked Bannon about the issue of the Obama Administration’s de facto illegal alien amnesty program DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the recent Trump Administration decision to rescind then-President Barack Obama’s executive order instituting DACA. Bannon warned that Republicans could lose their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives over the issue.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced this past week that President Donald Trump will reverse DACA with a six-month delay to allow Congress to find a solution. Bannon said in the interview, “if this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013. And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.”

Bannon immediately pushed back against Rose when the interviewer suggested that Bannon wanted to turn around the idea of immigrants coming to America to find a place and contribute to the economy. “You couldn’t be more dead wrong,” Bannon told Rose.

“America was built on her citizens,” stated Bannon.

“We’re all immigrants,” replied Rose.

Bannon retorted:

[D]on’t– don’t give me– this is the thing of the leftists. Charlie, that’s beneath you. America’s built on our sys– on our citizens. Look at the 19th century. What built America’s called the American system, from Hamilton to Polk to Henry Clay to Lincoln to the Roosevelts. A system of protection of our manufacturing, financial system that lends to manufacturers, okay, and the control of our borders.

Economic nationalism is what this country was built on. The American system. Right? We go back to that. We look after our own. We look after our citizen, we look after our manufacturing base, and guess what? This country’s going to be greater, more united, more powerful than it’s ever been. And it’s not– this is not astrophysics. Okay? And by the way, that’s every nationality, every race, every religion, every sexual preference. As long as you’re a citizen of our country. As long as you’re an American citizen you’re part of this populous economic nationalist movement.

Earlier in the interview, Bannon did not mince words when he called out Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan for resisting President Trump’s populist, economic nationalist agenda.

I think Mitch McConnell, and to a degree, Paul Ryan. They do not want Donald Trump’s populist, economic nationalist agenda to be implemented. It’s very obvious. It’s obvious as– it’s obvious as the– it’s obvious as night follows day is what they’re trying to do—

Later in the interview, the conversation turned to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign which Bannon served on for the last several months of the election cycle. Bannon emphasized the importance of “appealing to the American people and to the working class people in this country.”

Asked about the mainstream media and Hollywood’s critical portrayal of him, Bannon was clear that he doesn’t need the mainstream media’s affirmation or approval, that the working men and women of America are who the government should be working for. “I don’t care what they say. They can call me an anti-Semite. They can call me racist. They call me nativist. You can call me anything you want. Okay? As long as we’re driving this agenda for the working men and women of this country, I’m happy.”